Judges 16:29

_AND SAMSON TOOK HOLD OF THE TWO MIDDLE PILLARS UPON WHICH THE HOUSE STOOD, AND ON WHICH IT WAS BORNE UP, OF THE ONE WITH HIS RIGHT HAND, AND OF THE OTHER WITH HIS LEFT._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

25-31 Nothing fills up the sins of any person or people faster than mocking and misusing the servants of God, even thought it is by their own folly that they are brought low. God put it into Samson's heart, as a public person, thus to avenge on them God's quarrel, Israel's, and his own. That strength which he had lost by sin, he recovers by prayer. That it was not from passion or personal revenge, but from holy zeal for the glory of God and Israel, appears from God's accepting and answering the prayer. The house was pulled down, not by the natural strength of Samson, but by the almighty power of God. In his case it was right he should avenge the cause of God and Israel. Nor is he to be accused of self-murder. He sought not his own death, but Israel's deliverance, and the destruction of their enemies. Thus Samson died in bonds, and among the Philistines, as an awful rebuke for his sins;...

Verse Judges 16:29. _THE TWO MIDDLE PILLARS UPON WHICH THE HOUSE STOOD_] Much learned labour has been lost on the attempt to prove that a building like this might stand on two pillars. But what need of this? There might have been as many pillars here as were in the temple of Diana at Ephesus, and yet the two centre pillars be the _key of the building_; these being once pulled down, the whole house would necessarily fall....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 16:23 GATHERED THEM, _i.e._ themselves. TO REJOICE. The Hebrew _is for a festivity_,_ _or _merry-making_,_ _or _feast. _There was to be a great feast upon the sacrifices offered to Dagon their God. DAGON (from dag, a fish in Hebrew), the national male god of the Philistines, as _Atergatis_, or _Derceto_,_ _was their goddess. Both the male and female divinities seem to have had the head and breast and hands human, and the rest of the body fish-shaped (see 1 Samuel 5:5). The fish was a natural emblem of fertility and productiveness, especially to a maritime people. The fish-shaped idol is found upon old Phoenician coins, and also on the monument

AND SAMSON TOOK HOLD OF THE TWO MIDDLE PILLARS, UPON WHICH THE HOUSE STOOD, AND ON WHICH IT WAS BORNE UP,.... Some have objected, that a building so large and so capacious as this was could not be supported by two pillars, and those placed in the middle, and so near to each other that Samson could lay hold on them; on which it has been observed, that the architecture of the ancients is little known to us, and they might have curious and ingenious arts of building, now lost; and several authors have taken notice of two Roman theatres built by Curio, that held abundantly more people than this house did, which were supported only by a single pin or hinge, as Pliny y relates; and our Westminster hall, which was built by William Rufus, and is two hundred and seventy feet long, and seventy four broad z, and has a roof the largest in all Europe, is supported without any pillars at all; add to a...

CHAPTER 16 DELILAH, AND SAMSON _ 1. In Gaza (Judges 16:1)_ 2. Delilah and her victory over him (Judges 16:4) 3. The captive of the Philistines (Judges 16:21) 4. The feast of Dagon and Samson's death (Judges 16:22) Down he goes again, and this time to Gaza, the Philistine stronghold. There he unites himself with a harlot. We are here reminded of the history of the Church. The harlot typifies that system which in Revelation is called by the same name, she who seduces to commit fornication, Babylon the great, Rome. Rome is the capital of Philistinism, ritualistic Christendom, as Gaza was the capital of the

THE DEATH OF SAMSON. Dagon, the god of the Philistines, had been worshipped in the Maritime Plain long before their coming. They adopted the god of the district, just as many Israelites learned to worship the Baals of Canaan. One of the Amarna letter-writers was called Dagon-takala. There is still a Beit Dajan near Joppa, and another near Nâ blû s. Judges 16:24. In the Heb. the words Our god. many of us form a rhymed five-line song, each short line ending in _ç nû._ Judges 16:25. The blind giant apparently made sport by harmless exhibitions of his strength. Judges 16:27. And all the lords. women is probably a later insertion to heighten the effect. Codex B of the LXX has 70 instead

THE TWO MIDDLE PILLARS. Recent excavations at Gaza have laid bare two smooth stone bases close together in the centre, on (not in) which these two pillars stood. On these the main beams rested, and by which the whole house was sustained. Samson had only to pull these pillars out of the perpendicular, to effect his object....

_Samson and Delîlah: his ruin and famous end_ 4 _.the valley of Sorek_ Now Wâdi eṣ-Ṣarâr, a broad valley narrowing as it rises towards the Judaean highlands; the railway from Jaffa to Jerusalem ascends the lower part of it. _Soreḳ_denotes a choice kind of vine (Genesis 49:11; Isaiah 5:2; Jeremiah 2:21), which may have given its name to the valley. A ruined site near Ṣar-a (Judges 13:2 _n._) is still called Sûrîk....

_The Death of Samson Judges 16:23-31_ 23 Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand. 24 And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us. 25 And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars. 26 And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them. 27 Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines wer